A FORMER Reading mayor has spent the last two months living in a hotel after his home was flooded by the July rains.

Rajinder Sohpal and his wife have been forced to live out of a suitcase with their two daughters, aged 20 and 23, while their home in Carew Close, on the border of Tilehurst and Purley-on- Thames, is re-plastered.

Their house was submerged in three inches of water when flash flooding caused havoc in the area more than six months ago.

Former Labour councillor Mr Sohpal, who was Mayor of Reading between 1993 and 1994, told the Evening Post: “We weren’t desperately badly flooded but enough to cause a nuisance and we are now having to live in a hotel while the builders fix the damage that was caused.

“We decided to live with it as it was months until the builders could start. And although our house was a mess it was preferable to being in the hotel for the whole time.

“The insurance company are going to have to pay out around £10,000 for the hotel just for the two months so I think they will be glad we made that decision too.

“The carpets were completely ruined and had to be removed – the house has been far from homely since the summer and the novelty of living in a hotel rapidly wore off, so we are very much looking forward to getting everything back to normal.”

Mr Sohpal, whose family have been living in the Novotel Reading in Friar Street since December, said despite some advantages he couldn’t wait to move from the hotel back to his home.

He added: “I guess it means I don’t need to make breakfast for my wife every morning but she is far from happy living in a hotel.

“I think our daughters are having the most fun living here but we will all be delighted to get home, it was such an upsetting experience that we would like to put it behind us and move on.

“Thankfully we have had no problems sorting the insurance and we are hoping to be back home within a couple of weeks.”